Jump Then Fall
by abby.dance
Summary: Sofia has just moved back in with her mother in La Push, and immediately notices and is confused by the changes of some of the guys over only a year. When Seth imprints on her, he friends become slightly worried by her distance and friendship with Leah.
1. 1: Welcome Back Home

**Skye P.O.V.**

I was looking forward to coming back to La Push, but there were some things I was going to miss about living with my dad. For one thing, it wasn't going to be easy replacing the warm, sunny weather in South Carolina—where I've been living with my father for the past year—with the rainy, cloudy weather of Washington—where I'd be now living with my mother again. It was also going to be a little strange trying to catch up with everything I'd missed with my family and friends. One of the things making another move not so overwhelming was seeing the beautiful mountains and wilderness again—one of the things I'd missed most.

When I got to my old home—a two story house with faded green siding sitting in a semicircle-shaped yard surrounded by trees—I had to unpack all of my belongings, put them in their places, and then make sure I had everything ready for my first day back at the reservation's small high school the next day. I was rushing through putting everything away, thinking that the faster I threw things in my drawers and closet the faster sleep and then morning would come, because I was surprisingly excited to get pack into the more relaxed and laidback La Push routine.

The next morning, I actually woke up when my alarm went off; usually, I went back to sleep until someone had to come into my room and wake me up. Because of that, I had a lot more time than I usually did to throw together an outfit—which ended up consisting of a navy Jill jacket, a cream Abigail sweater, a blue stripe Keegan button-up shirt, and a navy Shea skirt all from one of my favorite stores, Abercrombie & Fitch. Luckily, the outfit was both cute and warm in the rainy, chilled weather.

On my way out the front door, I yelled goodbye to my mom and grabbed an umbrella in the basket by the door. I threw my bag over my shoulder and opened the umbrella as I stepped off the porch, listening to the sounds of raindrops hitting against the top of it.

The school was within walking distance of my house, and I got there on time and in only about five minutes. As I walked, I searched for familiar faces of any kind. Eventually, I found one of my best friends—Ruby—standing under her own umbrella.

When I was only a few feet from her, she finally realized I was coming towards her. She had to do a double take to make sure it was really me.

"Skye?" she said, bewildered but still smiling.

"Hey," I said excitedly.

She threw herself at me and squeezed me so hard it hurt—but in a good way. I hugged her back, and we both started laughing.

"When did you get back?" she asked.

"Yesterday. I can't believe I'm back already." I took a deep breath of the fresh mountain air and let it puff out of my nose.

"Thank goodness you came back. I was starting to worry if you fell off the face of the Earth yet," she said sarcastically.

I laughed and we started walking again. That was when Piper, another one of my good friends, found us. She reacted the same way Ruby did—shocked at first, but then really excited. Piper also assaulted me with a hug.

The three of us didn't have much time to catch up because we eventually had to head off to our first class. As I looked at my schedule—mailed to my mother's house a few weeks earlier—and maneuvered my way through the building, the rooms and halls became familiar again, and that made it easier to find my classes than I would have expected.

Throughout my first five classes, I was reunited with several of my other, not very close friends friends—Nora, Jade, Carl, Aaron, and Bailey—and at lunch it was finally time to catch up with everyone.

"So how was living in South Carolina?" Nora was the first to ask this question.

"It was alright," I said. "The weather was definitely a lot better, though." A couple people laughed at my sarcasm. "But other than that, it wasn't really _that_ amazing. I missed you guys too much. So…please inform me on what's been happening here without me."

Jade, Bailey, and Aaron went on to tell me about the latest budding and failing relationships, but it wasn't very interesting. It was just about the same guys and the same girls getting back together, finding someone new, or breaking up—same old, same old. What was somewhat interesting was the relationship budding in our group of friends—like Aaron and Jade. I always had that feeling that they would be good together, but I never thought that it would actually happen.

The remainder of the day—consisting of three more classes—went kind of quickly, and I couldn't wait to regroup with Piper and Ruby again after classes were over.

Since it was the first day of school, no homework was given out, so us three walked down to the beach. As we passed Embry Call's mother's store on the way there, I noticed three slightly unfamiliar figures coming out of the store. The only thing I recognized about them was their faces, and the three guys were definitely Quil Ateara, Jacob Black, Seth Clearwater, and Embry Call. I personally didn't know them, but I would occasionally see them around school or the reservation when I lived here two years ago; I also knew they'd already graduated, so it made me wonder what they could still be doing here—unless they didn't get into a college. What was unrecognizable was their build—extremely tall and muscular with very short hair; the last time I'd seen them they'd been at least a foot shorter, they'd had much longer hair, and they'd been lanky instead of having muscle on every inch of their bodies.

"What happened to them?" I wondered out loud.

Piper and Ruby both looked over at them.

"No one really knows," Ruby said. "It was weird. They missed some school, and when they came back, they looked…like that."

"Yeah," Piper agreed. "The same thing happened with the twins Brady and Collin and even Seth's older sister Leah. They all hang out with Sam Uley now, too."

"Hasn't he been graduated for years now, though?"

Piper shrugged. "It's probably just some weird guy thing."

"But what about Leah?" I asked. "I mean, I was never really friends with her, but I don't remember her ever really talking to any of those guys. Except Seth, but he's her brother."

"I don't know. I heard Sam's kind of…bad news, I guess. Maybe Leah's just looking out for him," Ruby said.

"Maybe." It was all a little suspicious to me, but I decided to let it go. It was none of my business what people I wasn't even associated with did with their lives.

The three of us kept walking, and the guys were starting to get closer to us as they walked farther away from the store. I glanced over my shoulder at them again, and I noticed that Seth—who was slightly smaller than Jacob, Embry, and Quil—was watching me. He didn't even look away when I caught him looking, like most people would do.

I jerked my head around and continued on to the beach, trying to shake off the strange feeling his gaze sent through me.

**Seth P.O.V.**

I felt stupid just standing there staring at her as she walked away, but I couldn't stop. I knew what just happened; I'd just imprinted.

"Perfect," I heard Jake mutter sarcastically beside. "That's just what I need. Another lovesick puppy."

I knew Jake was right, since that made three people out of five who've imprinted—including Jake himself—but that still didn't change the fact that the girl I was suddenly in love with was walking away, and all I wanted to do was run after her.

"Damn, he's got it bad," Embry joked from a few inches behind me.

"I wish you would imprint already," I finally said. "Then, you could stop annoying the hell out of us."

My imprint was out of my site by now, and I wished to see her again more and more as the seconds ticked by.

"Hey," Quil started, chuckling, "At least we can team up on him now."

Jake and I couldn't help but laugh a little bit, but Embry just grimaced at us.

"We better go," Jake sighed. "Sam said he needed to talk to us about something. He apparently needs our help with something."

We all perked up a bit at the sound of possibly doing something for once; things have been very quiet around La Push and Forks ever since the Volturi were proven wrong last winter about Nessie's birth.

I was the last to follow Quil, Embry, and Jake into the trees because I couldn't stop from glancing back at the last place I saw my imprint—that longing feeling in my stomach came back, but stronger this time.


	2. 2: A New Enemy

**Skye P.O.V.**

My first week back in La Push eventually came to a tiresome end. I was in much need of some relaxation, and the only place I could think of was the beach, so that's exactly where I headed after school.

It was one of the few afternoons when it wasn't raining, and that was both good and bad. It was good because I wouldn't have to lug an umbrella along with me, but it was bad because the sound of the rain hitting against the top of the umbrella would have been calming, too.

I had to pass the store again on my way there, and Jake and Seth were outside of it again. This was probably the tenth time I'd seen Seth this week, at least. I'd seen him on the way to the beach with friends, at the beach, walking home from school, and just walking around the streets on the reservation. It hadn't started to get weird until the seventh or eighth time.

A few seconds later after they saw me, I heard someone yell, "Skye!"

When I turned to see who it was, it was none other than Seth—who was now coming towards me. He approached me, and I noticed he was a good five inches taller than me.

"Hi," I said hesitantly. "How do you know my name?"

Seth paused for a second. "I… We went to school together, remember?"

I wasn't really interested in this conversation, so I answered shortly with, "Yeah, okay. So…did you need something?"

A small breeze came by and blew some of my hair across my face. I brushed it away with one of my hands and noticed Seth standing up a little straighter.

"Um…I just wanted to say welcome back to La Push," he said, sounding kind of nervous.

"Thanks." There was a short awkward silence, but it was suddenly broken by a loud howl from far up into the mountains—making me flinch.

"I have to go," Seth said quickly, before running off towards the woods.

As I watched him run off with a confused expression on my face, I noticed Jacob was gone, and right before Seth disappeared, too, I saw him pulling his shirt over his head and tossing it to the ground just inside the trees.

I stood there—frozen in place—for a few seconds. That was definitely one of the weirdest conversations I'd ever had—if a few sentences even counted as a conversation—and one of the weirdest things I'd ever seen someone do when they heard a wolf howl.

When my thoughts came back to me, it finally occurred to me that maybe I should go home if there were wild animals running around everywhere, but the less sensible side of me said to ignore it and just go to the beach. I mean, wolves don't usually roam around beaches, right?

**Seth P.O.V.**

Even though I had much more important things to think about, I couldn't help but mentally kick myself for being such an idiot when I had my first conversation with Skye. First of all, I really shouldn't have said her name—since she probably didn't even know my name; the only reason I knew her name was because of the many times I'd followed her around town, hearing her mom or one of her friends say it. Second, it probably made her think I was weird or something for running into the woods immediately after a wolf howled.

I was still thinking about it when I phased, but something way more important was on the line at the moment.

"_Seth," Jacob practically screamed at me. "Could you please focus for two seconds?"_

_ "Sorry," I thought softly._

_ I stayed quiet and was caught up to speed on what was happening. There was a male vampire running around the boundaries of Forks and La Push—the one Sam had informed us about a few days ago—looking for a way in. Luckily, Sam and his pack were trying as hard as they could to keep him out._

_ This vampire was especially dangerous because, when we went to tell the Cullens about it, Edward said he couldn't read his thoughts and Alice couldn't see it. The only things we knew about it were that it was unpredictable, and it was definitely looking for something, or someone, because of the lack of disappearances and deaths. _

_"Sam wants us to go around the Cullens area," Jake thought, starting to run in that direction with us following close behind him._

_ "What did I miss?" My sister was suddenly with us._

_ "Where've you been?" Embry wondered._

_ "Nowhere," she answered simply, not lying for any reason I could hear in her thoughts._

_ I saw the trees racing through her thoughts and could hear her paws hitting off the ground; she was only a hundred yards or so away now. Leah caught on to what was going on in a few seconds._

_ "Leah, Seth," Jake thought tersely. "Take the east end. Embry, Quil. Take the north. I'm going to meet up with Sam. The Cullen's will be around there to help out, too, besides Bella. She's staying back with Nessie."_

_ I mentally grimaced at having to go with Leah, and she mentally snickered in return. That was the only brother-sister teasing we got to do in the short time we had._

_ After waiting a minute for something to happen, the vampire finally showed himself by Leah and I. He was pale—like every other vampire on the planet—with black hair and dark red eyes; he was thirsty._

_ Leah didn't hesitate to run after him, and she almost caught him, but this one was fast—probably as fast as Edward or Jasper. She just missed tearing his shirt off with her bared teeth, but he slipped out of her reach. I saw, through Jake's thoughts, when he and Sam caught up to him. Paul and Jared were close behind, followed by Embry, Quil, Leah, and me; Brady, Collin, Tony, Clay, and Falcon—the only other wolves on duty—were surrounding us somewhere, and I could hear their feet hitting against the ground, trying to go faster._

_ Jake and Sam were almost to the cliffs by now, and I had the feeling that were going to lose the vampire to the ocean, and I was right. A few seconds later, after he's sliced through the water, there was an explosion of cursing in my head. If I wasn't a wolf right now, it probably would have given me a headache._

_ After the anger had calmed down, Jake phased back to talk to Sam and the Cullens again. Embry and Quil did, too, but I knew they were still annoyed, so now it was just me and Leah._

_ "So," she started nonchalantly, seeming to be unaffected by the loss we just faced. She walked beside me, and I noticed her glancing at me from the corner of her eye. "I heard my little brother finally imprinted."_

_ I groaned inside my head. "That's it. I'm phasing back and leaving the country."_

_ "You can't," she teased. "You wouldn't want to leave…what's her name? Oh, yes… You wouldn't want to leave Skye."_

_ I turned my head and growled at her. "Maybe you and Embry should get together," I said sarcastically. "Then, you two may finally be able to leave me, Quil, and Jake alone."_

_ Leah's nose scrunched up a bit and her ears twitched down and up once. "Whatever." I could tell she was kind of hurt and very annoyed by my suggestive comment, but I didn't really care. She was my sister; we're supposed to do these kinds of things to each._

_ "I'm heading home," I thought suddenly. I ran ahead to find my clothes, which I'd left just inside the trees by Embry's mom's store._

_When I found them, I phased back into my human form and quickly dressed myself._

As I walked out of the trees, stretching my muscles a little, I had a bunch of different thoughts running through my head—what that vampire could want, when he's come back, when the next time I'd see Skye would be…

Then, another thought occurred to me. When I'd left Skye standing on the street, she was originally headed for the beach—where the ocean where the bloodthirsty vampire had jumped into was.

Before I could even think, I was sprinting as fast as I could—while still human—down the road to the beach. I barely noticed a few people standing around look at me suspiciously. I was at the beach in five minutes, and I was more than grateful to see that she was there, safe, intact, and only fifty yards away.

I put my hands behind my head and tried to look casual as I caught my breath—like I sprinted to the beach like a maniac every day. Because my senses were on high alert with my imprint so close again, though, it was hard for me not to react when I heard her feet softly walk across the rocky beach towards me; she looked like she was thinking really hard about someone as she stared down at her bare feet, with a pair of sandals dangling from her fingers.

I watched her out of the corner of my eye, and when she was at least ten feet away, she finally looked up and noticed me.

She stopped at first. "You again?" she wondered, and I couldn't help but notice the small smile playing on her lips and smile in return.


	3. 3: Getting to Know

**Seth P.O.V.**

The moment when Skye was actually smiling—one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in my life—quickly faded, and she started looking at me like I was crazy. The only thing keeping me from leaving her alone—like she clearly wanted to be, even though the only thing I wanted to do was stay with her—was her coming towards me.

"Are you following me?" she asked, but I could tell she was joking by seeing the tiny grin on her face.

"No," I lied slowly, taking a couple steps towards her.

Skye stopped in front of me, and, since I was a good three or four inches taller than her, she had to look up slightly to see my face. "You're lying. I can tell." She paused, staring at me for a second. "So why were you following me?"

I didn't have an answer to that because I couldn't exactly say, "A vampire I was hunting with my wolf pack jumped into the ocean and got away. I just wanted to make sure you were safe." She would probably think I was delusional or something.

When I didn't say anything, Skye laughed shortly and turned to walk away. I quickly followed after her and matched her relaxed pace.

"So…," I started, thinking I might as well be the first to speak. "Did you just come back to La Push? I haven't seen you around since a year or two ago."

"I was living with my dad in South Carolina since Sunday, but now I'm back with my mom again," she said.

"Why did you move back here?" I asked.

She hesitated a little. "I don't know. It was just…weird living with him."

"Why?" I pressed.

"He would always disappear for long periods of time, and when he'd get home, he'd be covered in dirt and smelling like this weird burnt smell." Skye was watching the waves, and it seemed like she didn't know she was saying this to me.

"Why was the smell weird?" I wondered, not exactly understanding how a burnt smell could smell weirder than it already did.

"It was…sweet smelling, like my dad had been burning flowers, but their smell stayed." She looked up at me, and her cheeks were flushed. "Sorry, I don't mean to be telling you all of this. I probably sound crazy."

"No, I know exactly what you're talking about." Actually, I knew all too well what she was talking about. The only scent I knew of that was a mixture of a burning smell and a flowery smell was that of a burning dead vampire. That only made me think of how and why her dad could have had that particular scent on him. "Did you ever ask him about it?" I continued quickly.

"Once. He just told me he'd been out hunting with some friends, but I didn't believe one bit," Skye said.

"Why not?"

"Because it was South Carolina, and there's not really that much to hunt there. Plus, you can't go hunting that much. Besides, he never had any blood on him or brought anything home. I've never even seen him take the gun he keeps in the house out, and I'm pretty positive he doesn't have a hunting license, either." Skye was starting to sound really annoyed, and she was rambling a little bit.

"Wow," I mumbled quietly a second after she'd finished.

She glanced up at me again. "Sorry," she murmured.

"You need to stop apologizing for answering my questions," I laughed lightly.

"Then, I'll start asking you questions," she suggested. "Now that you know about my life story, what's yours?"

Of course, she started with the harder question, so I decided to answer somewhat honestly. "Trust me. You don't want to know about my life story."

"What? Were you arrested at age ten and been on the run from the cops ever since?" Skye teased.

"No," I laughed. "I'm just…complicated, I guess you could say."

"Good. Now it's mine turn to think you're crazy," she said.

I sighed heavily. "Well, I've never lived anywhere but here with my mom and my sister, Leah."

"What about your dad?" she asked curiously.

"He died about two years ago," I said after a minute, staring at the ground. I remembered how much of a wreck Leah, my mom, and I had been after he passed away, but if it wasn't for what happened, I never would have found my pack brothers—who've helped me get through it probably more than anyone else ever could have. I also never would have met Skye if I never would have become a wolf.

"Oh, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine," I said blankly, cutting her off. "It was a long time ago."

Skye was quiet for a minute. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing." The corner of her mouth twitched up. "So tell me more. About you."

"There's not much more to tell. Really, I'm not that exciting." _Because phasing into a giant wolf isn't exciting at all,_ I thought sarcastically.

"Fine. Then, I'm just-" Skye didn't finish her sentence because she suddenly tripped over a loose rock. She let out a small scream, and I was able to catch around the waist before she hit the ground.

When she stood up straight again, she was slightly leaning against my chest with my arms still around her waist. She didn't move an inch—except to turn only her head to look at me. We stared at each other for a second…and then I decided to take a chance; actually, it felt like I didn't have much of a choice. So I blamed it on my inner animal when I leaned in and kissed her.

The second our lips touched, it felt like… I have no idea what it felt like. It felt like the most amazing thing in the world times one million. It felt like forty billion volts of electricity were racing through me. It felt like the world had disappeared from around us. It felt like so many different things at the same exact time. And it all happened in a mere five seconds.

Skye was the one to pull away first, and at first her face was peaceful, even happy. Then, it slowly melted into something like a combination of shock and self-consciousness; her cheeks were red, her eyes were wide, and I could hear her heart beating a hundred miles per hour.

"I…," she started after a few moments. "I better go," she murmured slowly.

I didn't say anything and let her slip from my grasp. I watched her walk away for about two seconds, and then released myself to the trees to beat myself up for something that was or wasn't my fault. I didn't even bother to take my shorts and T-shirt off, and there was an audible tearing sound.

_When I hit the ground a second later, I was on four legs instead of two. I hovered near the edge of the tree line._

_ Skye was turned around and staring at the spot I'd been a few moments ago. Her eyes were focused on something on the ground, and she started walking towards it. She knelt down and picked up a dark maroon shredded piece of cloth—which was surrounded by more little pieces. It was my T-shirt…well, what was left of it. She held it gently between her fingertips and eventually let it slip free._

_ She stood up again and looked across the forest. I could have sworn she looked right at me, but it was hard to tell. As she started slowly walking away again, I felt a soft whine make its way up and out of my muzzle._

**Skye P.O.V.**

I decided to go to bed early that night because of the thoughts and images swirling around in my head. My thoughts and the images mainly revolved around Seth—of the way he looked at me with admiration, the way he asked about my personal life like he really wanted to know, how he'd caught me before I fell…how he'd kissed me. There were also the strange things about Seth—how fast he'd disappeared, how his T-shirt was ripped up into little pieces scattered over the rocky beach near the forest, how extremely warm his body was, and how everything felt…electric and right with him. I don't even know Seth, really, but I couldn't help but think about kissing him over and over again. I couldn't even think of the strange things as bad. That's how much I was sucked into his charm and the feeling I'd in the pit of my stomach when I'd been around him.

Lucky for me, the jumbled mess of thoughts made my brain more and more tired—making me more and more tired. But that still didn't stop Seth from sneaking into my dreams that night.


	4. 4: Warmth

**Seth P.O.V.**

_I could already tell it was going to be a slow, boring day of sitting around waiting for that vampire to come back again. I've been out here in the middle of the woods for hours upon hours—since seven o'clock…of yesterday—and I was beat; it had to have been early evening, if not later, and that meant it's been almost 36 hours hours without sleep._

_ I was leaning my shoulder against a tree, practically half asleep, when Jake's voice in my head startled me. "Seth." I stood up straight and my head spun slightly. "You know, it looks like there's not going to be too much action today, so you can go home and sleep if you want to. Sam, Collin, Brady, and Stephen are still out here. You too, Leah."_

_ Leah and I didn't argue. We ran half-heartedly to reach our separate piles of clothes and phased back to our human selves._

I didn't wait for her to catch up because all I wanted to do was get to my bed and sleep for a few hours, but Leah eventually caught up to me. Neither of us talked, and a half-awkward, half-peaceful silence settled between us.

I think we were only walking for a few minutes when we started walking past the first house; it was Skye's house, and I suddenly perked up and subconsciously started walking a little faster.

Leah looked at me funny, but I ignored it when I saw Skye walking up her driveway towards her mailbox. When Leah saw her, I noticed a grimace spread across her face. Of course, that was the moment when Skye saw us.

She saw Leah first, but quickly looked away. When she saw me, Skye gave me a small smile. I walked the few feet left between us, and Leah followed leisurely behind with her arms across her chest.

"Hey," I said.

"Hi." Skye looked at Leah again quickly.

"Oh. This is my sister, Leah," I muttered reluctantly.

"Nice to meet you," Skye said, trying to sound polite.

"Hi." I could tell Leah was in a bad mood because of the lack of sleep, but she could've at least tried to be nice to the girl I imprinted on. "Seth, I'm going home to sleep. You know, you should get some, too. Jake will probably be calling us in a few hours to relieve Collin and Brady, anyway."

I gave Leah an annoyed look; she just couldn't understand what it meant by 'too much information,' could she? "I'm fine. I'll sleep…later. Just go home." I didn't even try to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

Leah just shrugged and walked away.

After she was turning around a bend, I turned back to Skye—who had a thoughtful look on her face. "Do you need to go home with you sister?" she asked.

"Nope," I said shortly.

"Okay." She eyed me strangely for a second and then reached into her mailbox—pulling out several envelopes.

She turned and started walking back to her house, and I followed after her.

"Do you ever where shoes?" she joked, glancing at my bare feet.

I shrugged. "I guess not."

"How come?" she wondered.

"It's just…more convenient," I said honestly.

Skye shook her head and grinned with an amused look on her face. We walked up the two front steps and into her house. I shut her front door behind me, and quickly observed what I could see of the first floor of the house; the walls and floor were paneled with wood, with a few family pictures hanging on the walls and sitting on tables. Skye through the mail onto a small table next to a picture of two younger-looking people—who were probably her mom and dad before they were separated.

"Who are Collin and Brady?" she asked randomly, leading us into what looked to be a living room—with a conch, two arm chairs, and a television.

"Um…" I tried to think of a good response. "They're just a couple friends of mine and Leah's."

"Oh." Skye was starting to confuse me with the random line of questioning.

She sat down on the end of the couch, crossing her legs, and I sat beside her—turning so I could look at her. We stared at each other for a second, and I couldn't help but notice that even though she was wearing an old pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt with her long dark brown hair in a messy ponytail, she still looked pretty.

"Wow," she muttered. "Leah was right."

"What?" I hadn't realized I completely zoned out for a second.

"You are tired."

I yawned in response, and she laughed.

"I'm fine," I yawned again.

"Okay," she said sarcastically. "Why did you follow me in here, anyway, if you're so tired?"

"Because I wanted to see you."

Skye looked away and tried to fight back a grin, and her cheeks turned pink. Then, I suddenly noticed a small shiver run through her, and goose bumps rose on her arms. I instinctively inched closer until I could press my arm against hers. She flinched at first and looked up again, but she didn't move away.

She pressed her fingers into my arm, and they were really cold compared to my skin. "Are you okay?" she asked, scrunching her eyebrows together and staring at her hand still on my arm.

"Perfectly okay," I answered.

"Then how come you feel like you have a fever?" she wondered.

I shrugged. "I've always had a higher body temperature than average. But it does come in handy a lot because I never get cold anymore." That was almost completely true; I haven't always been like this.

"Huh," she muttered simply. Skye looked like she was thinking really hard about something, a few lines embedded in between her eyebrows.

"What are you thinking so hard about?" I asked, laughing lightly at her concentrated expression.

"Nothing." Now she was starting to sound frustrated. She looked up at me, then. "I'm just trying to…figure you out."

"What do you mean?" I wondered.

"I've never met someone like you before. I know it might sound cliché, but it's true," she said.

I grinned down at Skye, and she smiled back. I wanted to kiss her again—and I considered it—but I didn't want to make things awkward again, like yesterday at the beach.

"How come I never see you at school anymore?" She asked another random question.

I had to think for a second because her question caught me off guard. "Leah and I usually try to avoid the first week, since everyone's still trying to figure out where they're going. And it's usually the most boring week to me, too."

"Oh, that makes sense," she mused. "So I'll see you at school eventually, then?"

I nodded, and I noticed her eyes light up ever so slightly.

"So what are you now?" she asked me. "Junior? Senior?"

"Junior," I answered.

"Really?" She seemed surprised. "You look like you could be a senior."

I chuckled. "I get that a lot."

"How old are you?"

"Almost seventeen. How old did you think I was?" I asked questioningly.

"You look like you're eighteen," Skye answered. When she paused for a second, I heard a cell phone almost silently ringing in the other room.

"You know, your phone's ringing," I said.

"What?" Skye stood up and walked into other room, and I heard her mutter, "How could he have possibly heard that?"

She answered with a 'hello' as she walked back into the room with her cell phone pressed against her ear, and I heard one of her friends on the other end of conversation.

"Hey, Skye," an excited voice answered.

"Hi, Pepper," Skye said back.

"Are you doing anything right now?" Piper asked.

Skye glanced at me quickly. "No," she said slowly, making it sound like a question.

"If you're busy, it's okay. Ruby and I were just going to go hang out with Aaron, Bailey, and Carl. You know, Aaron's been asking about you lately," I heard Piper say suggestively.

"He has?" Skye wondered.

I suddenly got extremely jealous and defensive hearing that another guy had been asking about Skye. She was my imprint, and I didn't want anyone else interested in her but me.

"Hey, are you okay?" I looked over to see Skye looking at me with a strange expression on her face and her phone turned away from her mouth. Then, I saw she was staring at my hand—which was shaking violently. I clenched it into a fist and tried to breathe evenly to possibly make it stop.

"Is someone there? Who are you talking to?" I heard Piper ask through the phone.

"Um…yeah, someone's here," Skye answered, still glancing at me out of the corner of her eye. "But you probably don't know him."

"Him?" Piper sounded surprised. "Well, who is it?"

Skye hesitated. "Seth Clearwater."

"Oh," Piper said shortly, sounding a little thrown off guard. "Are you not coming then?"

She looked at me again and gave me a look that said, "Do you care if I leave?" I shrugged in response, even though I really wished she would say no to her friend.

"I'll come," Skye answered finally, and I couldn't help but grimace.

"Okay, Ruby and I will stop by to get you in a few minutes."

"See you." Skye hung up and looked at me.

"Sorry," she apologized.

"Why are you apologizing?" I asked. "I was the one who followed you into your own house." I tried to sound casual and joking, like I didn't mind her leaving.

Skye half-smiled and laughed once. "I know. I just feel kind of bad." She paused. "But you can stay until they get here, if you want to." She sounded hopeful and like she really meant it.

She set her phone down on the coffee table and sat sideways on the couch next to me with her legs crossed—so she was facing me. Skye looked down at my hand, still loosely in a fist but not shaking anymore. I watched her as she slowly straightened out my fingers with a blank look on her face—seeming to do it without thinking. I smiled crookedly to myself, and when she looked up at my face, she gave me a small smile, too; our faces were also literally only a few inches away from each other.

I got the urge to kiss her again, but I didn't get a chance to because we were interrupted by a knock at the door; Piper and Ruby stayed true to their word when they said they'd be here in a few minutes. A few moments later, I heard the door open and close and the sound of Piper's voice.

"Skye?" she called, walking in and pausing in the entryway of the living room. "Oh, hi," Piper said when she saw us sitting together.

"Piper," Skye said a little uneasily, sitting up straighter. "You're here early."

"I said a few minutes," Piper answered, still eying me funny.

"Oh, well, I still have to get ready," Skye said.

Ruby and Piper stared at us for another second before Ruby said, "We'll just meet you outside, then."

"Okay." Ruby and Piper walked back out the door.

Skye sighed when the door closed again, and it sounded like she wished her friends hadn't come this early. It made me feel better that she wanted me to stay, like I wanted to.

"Do you not want to go with them?" I wondered as we both stood up.

"It's just what she said about Aaron," Skye said. "He's had this weird crush on me since almost ninth grade, and it's getting kind of…annoying."

I smirked and said, "I guess I'll leave you to your friends."

I started to turn and walk towards the door, but I was stopped by Skye saying, "Wait." She took another step toward me. "Do you want to come with us?" Her voice seemed to get higher as she said the question, like she was nervous.

I didn't know what to say; ninety-five percent of me wanted to say yes, but the other five percent wanted to say no because of the hesitant way Ruby and Piper had been looking at me. The ninety five percent ended up being able to speak before the other five percent.

"Sure, but are you sure your friends won't mind?" I asked.

"They won't." Skye ran out of the room and up the stairs. I heard a door shut above me and a few drawers and a closet door shut a couple times, too. A few minutes later, I heard her come down the stairs and go into the kitchen. She opened another drawer, pulled out a few things, and it sounded like she was writing something—probably a note letting her mom know where she would be.

Even though Skye wanted me to come and hang out with her and her friends, I was still a little uneasy about it. The thought was immediately brushed away when Skye came into the room—grabbing her cell phone off the table and newly changed into a dark blue hoodie and jeans with her hair down and pulled back from her face with a headband.

**Skye P.O.V.**

It was awkward, very awkward, on the walk down to the beach with Seth, Ruby, and Piper, so I could only imagine what it would be like when we were around the other guys—Bailey, Carl, and Aaron.

When we arrived at the beach, Aaron, Bailey, and Carl were already there. They saw Seth and got the same emotion on their faces—surprise. Seth stuck close behind me with a wary expression on his face.

Even though Seth did look kind of out of place around my friends, I was still glad he'd agreed to come with me because of what Piper had said about Aaron—who's had a crush on me since our freshman year—asking about me. Maybe if he'd see that I brought Seth with me, he'd get the idea that I wasn't interested in him at all.

When Aaron saw Seth, he got a weird expression on his face—like he was jealous but trying really hard to hide it. I walked to the other members of our group between Seth and Aaron.

"So how was your first week back?" Aaron asked me.

"It was okay," I answered. "It's still just same old La Push."

"Was it hard getting back in the routine here?" he wondered.

"Not really," I said shortly, not really wanting to continue with the casual conversation of my getting back to school.

To be honest, I really just wanted to talk to Seth—which was one of the other reasons I'd wanted him to come with us; I didn't know why, but I always had the urge to get to know him better and be closer to him when we were together.

Lucky for me, Bailey and Carl got Aaron's attention away from me to go collect driftwood to burn in the fire they were making.

There were a few bigger pieces of driftwood—resembling logs rather than sticks and twigs—that were in arranged in a messy semicircle around what was going to be the fire.

Ruby and Piper were already sitting on one, and I sat down on the log beside theirs with Seth.

"Is anyone else coming?" I asked the girls.

"Jade and Nora said they might come," Ruby answered. "So Jade will probably come with Eli." Eli was Jade's boyfriend, and they'd just recently started dating these past few days, so they were probably going to be clinging to each other all night—still in that new relationship daze.

I stared out at the water—not knowing what else there was to talk about. The sun was starting to set already, and the wind blowing off the ocean was especially cool.

"How are you not cold?" Piper asked Seth, eyeing him in his T-shirt, cut-off shorts, and bare feet.

Seth shrugged like he had before when I'd asked him. "I never really get cold."

"That is insane," Ruby laughed. Both she and Piper were wearing the exact same thing I was—a hoodie and a pair of jeans—but they were still cold and had their arms wrapped around their torsos.

I wasn't as cold as they seemed to be, but that could have been because of the heat that seemed to be radiating off of Seth. I hadn't realized he'd been inching closer to me until his arm was pressed up against mine—making me completely comfortable temperature-wise. I smiled up at his face and leaned closer into his side, stuffing my hands in the front pocket of my hoodie.

The guys came back, then, with armfuls of driftwood. They threw it all in the already-forming pile of wood, and Bailey pulled out a lighter and some paper to start the fire. Aaron glanced at Seth and me once, but didn't really bother us at all besides with a casual short conversation or two.

Before the sun was completely down—about a half an hour or so later—Nora, Jade, and Eli finally showed up. Jade and Eli were walking close together and hand in hand—like I'd predicted—with Nora trailing along beside them. The three of them were surprised to see Seth there, but they didn't seem to mind as much as my other friends had at first.

As the night wore on, my eight friends got used to Seth being around, and they actually started to make some real conversations with him—a good portion of them starting with how he wasn't cold. The night also unsurprisingly got colder, and since the fire didn't seem to be helping too much, Seth's arm ended up around me.

For the moment, everyone else seemed to be having their own quiet conversations, so me and Seth were left silent. I was watching the orange flames of the fire and still didn't say anything, but the silence with the crackling sounds from the fire was peaceful. I was only half-conscious of the fact that Seth's warm cheek was resting on the top of my head.

When I heard Seth breathing heavy, I turned my head slightly and saw that he was asleep. I tried to slowly move my head away without waking him, but I obviously failed.

Seth sat up straight, and I giggled at the dazed expression in his eyes.

"I think you should have gone home with Leah," I said.

Seth smirked and said, "I'd much rather be here. Trust me."

"How come?" I wondered.

"Leah can be…annoying sometimes." I could tell by the look on his face that he could have said more.

"Why are you so tired, anyway?" I asked. When I was talking to Seth, the questions—long or short—always seemed to come out after everything he said.

"I haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately," he answered.

I could tell Seth was really exhausted by the bags forming under his eyes and the tired expression on his face.

"Do you want to leave?" I asked.

"I don't want to make you leave your friends."

I looked around all of my friends having their own conversations without me. "I don't think they'll miss me."

I stood up and started to walk—hopefully unnoticeably—away with Seth.

"Skye, are you leaving already?" I heard Aaron call from the other side of the fire.

I turned and saw everyone looking at me. "I'm tired, so I'm just going to go home. I'll see you guys later, okay?"

They all said good-bye to me and Seth, and we went on our way back up the beach.

As we walked up the street in the pitch black, I'm not going to lie and saw that it didn't freak me out at least a little bit. Seth seemed to notice the edgy vibe I must have been giving off and walked a little closer to me.

"Nothing's going to hurt you out here," he said after a few seconds.

"How do you know?" I questioned.

"Trust me. I've been out here thousands of times at night, and nothing's ever happened to me. I mean, I'm still standing here, aren't I?"

Even though Seth's words did comfort me, I was still extremely grateful that my house wasn't that far from the beach. When we got to my house, all the lights were off inside, and my mom was probably already asleep in her bed.

Seth paused outside my door. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing." It seemed like he had something to say, and I wished he would just spit it out. After a few moments, he did. "When can I see you again?"

The question slightly surprised me, but it still made me smile knowing that he wanted to see me again.

"Any time you want to," I answered, because it was the truth. Even though I'd known Seth for barely two days, I'd probably let him in my house at two in the morning if he came knocking.

Seth grinned and didn't hesitate to hug me—surprising me again. Like I said before, even though Seth and I had only known each for a couple days, I didn't want him to leave.

It was the weirdest feeling to feel like we could be together, even though we were barely friends.


End file.
